1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for discharging a printing paper in a color video printer which is capable of completely discharging printing papers into a paper box by providing guide members for guiding the discharge of printing papers at a take-out roller which is engaged with a discharging roller.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
In general, a color video printer is constituted such that a printing paper is fed by a pair of feed rollers along a paper passage which is defined by an upper guide and a lower guide. After passing through the paper passage, the printing paper is transferred between a pinch roller and a grip roller and then located below a donor cassette containing a film therein. When the trailing edge of the printing paper is located between the pinch roller and the grip roller, the printing paper is pressed on a platen roller together with the film from the donor cassette by a thermal print head. The printing paper which is in contact with the platen roller is inversely transferred by an inverse rotation of the grip roller and at this moment a predetermined picture image is printed on the printing paper. Then, the printing paper is discharged into a paper box by a discharge roller and a take-out roller.
A conventional color video printer with such a typical discharging path is illustrated in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional color video printer comprises a pair of feed rollers 1a and 1b on which a feed belt 1c is wound, a roller 2a rotatably mounted below the feed roller 1a for preventing a double feeding, a donor cassette guide 3 fixed adjacent to the roller 2a, an upper and a lower guides 4 and 5 for defining a passage 30, a grip roller 6 and a pinch roller 7 engaged with each other, a platen roller 8 rotatably mounted in front of the rollers 6 and 7, a thermal print head 9 pivotably mounted over the platen roller 8, a donor cassette 10 supported by donor cassette guides 3 and 3a between the thermal print head 9 and the platen roller 8, a take-out roller 11 and a discharge roller 12 engaged with each other and provided at the rear side of the lower guide 5, and a paper box 13 supported at the rear side of the discharge roller 12 by a support member 14.
In FIG. 1, reference numeral 5a denotes a printing paper guide, 13a a rim portion of the paper box 13, 15 a printing paper, 16 a cam, 17 a link mechanism, and 18 a film.
The color video printer as shown in FIG. 1 operates as follows.
A shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a printing paper 15 is fed by the feed rollers 1a and 1b and passes through the paper passage 30 defined by the upper and lower guides 4 and 5. And then, the printing paper 15 is transferred between the donor cassette guide 3a and the printing paper guide 5a by the grip roller 6 and the pinch roll 7. At this moment, when the trailing edge of the printing paper 15 is located between the grip roller 6 and the pinch roller 7, the thermal print head 9 rotates toward the platen roller 8 by the operation of the cam 16 and the link mechanism 17 so that the printing paper 15 and the film 18 contained in the donor cassette 10 are pressed on the platen roller 8. In this state, the grip roller 6 transfers the printing paper 15 in the inverse direction while rotating in the inverse direction by a separate driving source and thermal print head 9 prints a predetermined picture image on the printing paper 15. And then, the printing paper 15 is discharged into the paper box 13 by a take-out roller 11 and the discharge roller 12 through the passage 30 formed between the upper and lower guides 4 and 5.
In such a conventional color video printer, the printing paper 15 is not completely discharged into the paper box 13 at times, that is a phenomenon that the trailing edge of the printing paper 15 is hung over the rim portion 13a of the paper box 13 occurs frequently. In that case, since the trailing edge of the printing paper is raised upwardly, the next printing paper is caught by the previous printing paper in a continuous printing operation. In such a state, the discharge roller and the take-out roller are rotated continuously so that the picture image on the printing paper may be damaged.